Display Advertising is a great medium for enhancing listings, driving traffic or raising awareness of upcoming promotions and special incentives. We've seen builders utilize all of these tactics with Display Advertising on NewHomeSource.
One strategy which seems obvious but is often overlooked is to advertise actual builder's communities, similar to the way billboards along the highway are used. NewHomeSource shoppers are active home buyers looking for information about new home communities and new home plans. Display Ads that focus on a community or range of communities often outperform other types of campaigns. Considering consumers search homes by price and location, it's critical to include that information in your display creative. A relevant landing page and tracking code is also critical to measure consumer action and generate leads.
When developing a campaign consider the following:
- What message do I want to convey?
- Where will I send my consumers?
- What action should they take once they are on my landing page?
With a clear strategy in place it's easy to tweak and refine a display campaign. You may find the campaign is delivering excellent traffic but converting poorly. The issue may be with the the landing page, not the ad. Or, you may find few clicks but very relevant action from those consumers who do respond. This insight will provide you the information necessary to optimize your campaign and drive more value from your online marketing.
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For more information about Display Marketing Strategies contact Thane Tennison, Ad Ops Manager. We also encourage you to share what campaigns have performed best for you.
Video ads have been used for years to advertise major brands online. Their success and popularity is attributed to several factors including consumer recall and increased click-through rates. To help home builders take advantage of this new medium BHI is now offering Video Banners across all its sites and can help with video ad production.
When considering video advertising keep in mind a few simple best practices to maximize performance. First, Video Ads adhere to the same rules as other display campaigns. The goal should be to pull consumers into the ad and make sure that it meets their search objectives. We recommend featuring homes or communities that appeal to the consumers search instead of long videos that touch on a variety of products. The Ad should have specific marketing goals and the videos should be short, 30 seconds or less. A recent report released by Point Roll & the IAB shows that on average about 50% of all video ads play to completion, which means your call to action should be present upfront remain on screen. I recommend including a snipe in the video or using other real estate on the banner to support the video’s message.
Let the images tell the story. Video is a great way to capture a plan or show the full amenities of a new community. Large pans, and fades are captivating and can often say more than a line of copy. However, as a policy BHI requires all ads to begin playing with sound off, therefore it's essential that the video can stand alone without sound. It’s also important to consider other websites' spec requirements if you'd like to use your Video Ad beyond BDX sites.
Click here to view a sample Video Ad or contact BHI Media’s professional staff to see how they can help you craft or video banner or edit existing footage to make your homes and communities stand out.
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For more information on how you can take advantage of Display Advertising, contact Thane Tennison, Ad Operations Manager for BDX at 866-651-8868 or at ttennison@builderhomesite.com. You can also follow Thane on Twitter at @t_tennison.
About a week ago we told you about a survey of more than 6,000 consumers on our new home shopping site, NewHomeSource.com. We lamented that less than 10% of consumers would fill out lead forms. While we were encouraged that 23.5% said they took action, this still left 76.5% not taking action. SO, WHY NOT?!
Of course we asked this question as well. While some consumers really took no action, some merely took no action we could measure from our website. What do you think was the #1 reason consumers told us that took no action? The #1 reason consumers gave us for not taking action was "I might later, but I’m just looking today." Have you heard this one before? That group really took no action ... at least that day.
More interesting was the #2 response. 22.0% said that they would prefer to visit the community in person. The chart below shows the breakdown of why consumers took actions other than those we could measure.
The consumers in this survey were motivated shoppers. After bouncing around NewHomeSource.com (i.e., they are motivated), they then opted into the survey. So, the absolute percentage taking action or giving a reason for not doing so is less meaningful than the ratios.
In my blog entry about the actions consumers take on listing websites on the November 20th, I reported that 23.5% of 4,245 consumers surveyed said they took some form of action on NewHomesource.com. 32.3% of these, or 7.6% of the total, filled out a form asking for information. While 76.5% took an action we could not measure, 22.0% of these or 16.8% overall, said they preferred to visit the community in person. So, for every person filling out a lead form on NewHomesource, 2.2 times as many said they would rather just showing up.
I always thought it was 3-4 times that number showing up as physical traffic relative to leads (early, presumably less scientific research), but I am okay with 2.2 times as many shoppers showing up as physical traffic as those filling out a lead form. Think about this when considering the number of lead request you get from your website. 2X the number may just show up instead. This has huge implications for any internet marketing expenditure.
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics:
- 12.9% of new home shoppers in this survey (19.9% of 76.5%) really don’t want to be contacted. That does not mean they will not show up in person, but that they are not ready to talk to you. Does this mean that the other 87.1% are waiting for your call and wondering why you are ignoring them?
- 10.3% of new home shoppers in this survey (13.4% of 76.5%) couldn’t find a community they were interested in. We either have the wrong builders 10% of the time or maybe these consumers don’t know your community well enough. Give them some pictures, video, and tell them why they should want to live there.
- 2.1% of new homes shoppers in this survey (2.7% x 76.5%) aren’t even interested in buying a new home. To heck with that half-full mentality! 97.9% are actively shopping for a new home.
Come on you market research types, tell me how it is. Let me know what you think.
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-- Blair Kuhnen, Builders Digital Experience, bkuhnen@thebdx.com, 512-289-7370
So, you know you should be adding Hot Homes for all of your communities, but you're running short on ideas. I mean, how many ways can you say "fantastic" or "special", right? Maybe you're struggling for ways to promote a home plan as "hot". Or what can you say about a spec other than that it's "gorgeous" or "ready to move in"?
New Home Source and our distribution partners bring in the prospects, but what can you say that will motivate them to take action? ... To make that leap from viewing results, to clicking on your listing--to asking for more information?
The key is to communicate scarcity or exclusivity – or better yet, both. You want your prospect to feel like they've found your home or community just in time and need to act fast; or to know that your product is their only choice to receive the promoted exclusive benefits.
To get your creative juices flowing, take a look at these example Hot Homes. And when you're ready for more, see the link below with 183 ideas to use for Hot Homes, Promotions, Home or Community descriptions, and Amenity lists!
Got Specs?
- Best lot, same price. Hurry, this just-finished Clark plan is on a giant corner lot
- Lovely, mature trees grace this just-built home in Ranchland Villas
- Just Reduced to sell fast! This home won't last long at this price. Come talk to us about this home and two other just-finished inventory homes with special pricing
Plan Homes?
- See the jaw-dropping pictures of this plan. Shows like a model…because it is! Come tour our exquisitely decorated model home today.
- Exclusive alcoves and architectural features. This plan features unique details not usually found at this price
- The Geneva, Lowest cost per square foot offered in Sunset Estates. Terrific value for a ton of family living space.
Lots?
- Only one more Golf lot! And this plan has just the right patio setup to take in the view
- Closing Out! This is the last, Eklund to be built in Copper Junction. 3-car garage for your boat, RV, or workshop!
So get started today! As always, if you need help or training, we're an email away at BuilderSupport@newhomesource.com.
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Paul Gruber, Senior Product Manager, leads product planning and development for BHI's Consumer Products and Websites including www.NewHomeSource.com
Since the launch of our Hot Homes feature a few months ago, more and more builders have utilized this unique merchandising opportunity to create increased awareness, exposure, and inquiries for their new home communities. Best of all, it’s free and easy to add Hot Homes.
Are you are on the sidelines waiting to see if it’s worth the effort?
Well, it’s time to get off the sidelines and into the game – it works! And we have the numbers to prove it. More on that in a bit.
Separate yourself from the crowd
There are several ways for consumers to respond to Hot Homes as they search and browse new homes on NewHomeSource.com. Here, on a search results page, those communities with Hot Homes feature a special “HOT HOMES” emblem:
(By the way, promotions are also merchandised with a “SPECIAL OFFER” emblem. Together with Hot Homes, we call these “Hot Deals” on the New Home Source website.)
Visitors to NHS are also invited to go directly to “Hot Deals” in their market, either by doing a dedicated Hot Deals search, or by clicking the Hot Deals tab from their search results page. In either case, this search results view is shown:
Here, the consumer sees the Hot Homes title and description data fields you created to induce the visitor to investigate further and to request more information.
Results
On average across market areas on New Home Source, builders who have one or more communities featuring a Hot Home get 20% MORE consumer inquiries per community (AKA leads) versus builders who don’t have a hot home in that market area.
Your “action items"
- Learn how to input Hot Homes Data
- Log-in to BHI Live and go to the manage homes screen, select 'Yes' in the "Hot Home?" column and follow the prompts to enter a title and description.
- If you feed data to us, contact us for information on how to add the data to your feed
- For each of your communities, find two homes that you can feature as Hot Homes and create marketing copy that highlights the home or plan's uniqueness, value, or scarcity
- Ask questions -- we love to help you use our listing and advertising features to the fullest! Contact buildersupport@newhomesource.com
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Paul Gruber, Senior Product Manager, leads product planning and development for BHI’s Consumer Products and Websites including www.newhomesource.com
 The new strategic partnership between Builder Homesite and BuildTopia, which was announced today, has made the lives of builders who use NewHomeSource.com a lot easier. While they may be used to getting great exposure online due to BHI's other partnerships with sites like Zillow, Yahoo! Real Estate, and AOL Real Estate, builders may not have been able to effectively manage all of the leads from those sites.
With BuildTopia's BTLead, builder can now have access to a web-based lead management tool that is feature-rich and designed specifically for the home building industry. Read more about this partnership in this press release.
All too often in the homebuying process, sales people take the rather passive role of either answering questions or stating facts, like how much HOA dues are and what incentives are available. However, the process of buying a new home is as much an emotional decision as it is a logical decision. Here are some "engagement tools" for creating an emotional tie to your homes with homebuyers.
- Start with your Internet presence. Does your webpage copy engage the homebuyer and virtually inspire that anticipation of ownership? Let consumers know what kind of experience they will have owning one of your homes. Tell them what sets your homes apart from your competitor's.
- Use real-life testimonials. Let your most satisfied customers speak for you and tell their own story. Consumers tend to trust the opinions of fellow consumers more than they trust your ad copy.
- Provide Interactive Floor Plans to bring the consumer further into their attachment to your homes. Interactive floor plans allow the consumer to refine and perfect their ideal home based on the plans and options you provide. The more you can have them thinking "this is my home" the better.
- New home and new home community videos are also wonderful tools for inspiring an emotional response in the home buying process. What better way to virtually place your site's users into your homes or communities than through video? Use a professional video production company to help you create the right atmosphere, embed just the right music, and capture the most eye-catching image stills and video.
- Use the best practices for web usability to provide as much information as possible to your users in an eye-catching and appealing way. Remember, buyers in today's market do all of their research online before they ever visit your model.
- Real-World follow-through. Carry your efforts for creating an emotional attachment to your homes into real-world tours of your model homes. Use language that reminds the home buyer of the experience they "will have" in their new home. Keep your on-site sales staff enthusiastic and motivated. Remember, nothing is more contagious than emotion.
If you use these few "feel good" tools, you'll create an experience for the homebuyer long before you start discussing pricing and lot selection. Get those buyers involved emotionally first, and the sale is made.
Please feel free to contact your BHI representative for further information on what we can do to help you.
Chad Bria
480-370-3141
cbria@builderhomesite.com
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Chad Bria has been in the Internet technology new home builder sector for over ten years, helping builders, ranging from custom home builders to "Builder 100" clients nationwide, with their Internet presence.
Content is still king online. Better content on your website and on your distribution websites for new homes drives better results. Whether those results come in the form of leads, website traffic, or engagement and time on your website, it ultimately means more customer contacts, qualified traffic into your communities, and new home sales. In a series of entries over the next month, we will share with you new research on the power of content to drive action.
Today, let us talk about one of the easiest ways to drive these actions. This costs you nothing and the effort is slight. You already have promotions and incentives in your communities. These offers may be in print media, online or simply as flyers. By moving this information online, customer actions increase leading to traffic and sales. Here’s what you can do right now, today.
- Gather your promotions. Look at any offers you may have in print and gather those that are being offered locally.
- Summarize each offer for the Web. This is easy. Keep it short, clear, and specific. Include a time limit and a call to action that you can track. For Example: "Up to $40,000 off select inventory homes if you close by March 31st. 2009. Call 888-555-1212 to learn more."
- Add the promotions to your website and NewHomeSource.com through your datafeed or by adding them using BHILive.
Take these steps now and your promotions will not only work better on your website, but will be highlighted in NewHomeSource.com at no cost to you to drive additional traffic and sales. Make this part of your marketing process and sell more homes today.
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Blair Kuhnen
American industry has changed. In the 1940's we built smaller houses. Automobile manufactures built bigger cars. Airlines use to pay a distribution channel, called Travel Agents, reasonably well. Cameras used to use film.
Okay, we got it. Things change.
Like any period of change, some fear it while others look for a way to exploit it. The important question isn't which one are you; you should already know that. The question is what are you going to do about it?
Want a bigger piece of pie? Make the pie bigger. Go sell houses to the types of people you never reached before. Or if your piece is still smaller, make it a very rich piece.
So, here are 3 concepts to consider:
1. Education is key.
You might think that you didn't go in to building homes to be an educator. Think again. Sales & Marketing is about education. Communicating why you are better, why new is better than previously owned, how to buy a house, and how to get a mortgage, etc., are all types of education. The list goes on. So, consider how you are educating, and start doing it better, earlier, in more places, and online (your web site) and beyond.
2. You already leverage technology. But, are you maximized?
The Internet represents a continually expanding opportunity. Paper has its place too, but make sure you are really using some system(s) internally and maximizing the Internet externally with pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) (and maybe paying extra to get your site to come up higher), especially if you are an Associate selling to builders or to consumers!
3. Take advantage of distributed workflow.
Lots of industries are experts at this. Airlines make you find the best price. Grocery stores have self-checkout kiosks. Banks have ATM's. You have to pump your own gas. And there are a hundred more examples. But those companies are making money by embracing and leveraging change.
Builders can do that too. You don't have to take warranty calls via telephone. You could flood your website with images, data, links, interactive sales tools, videos, and much more. You can utilize trade partners; not just their expertise, but their locations or other value-adds, like their inventory.
It's about communication and business management -- leveraging your human capital, using money (preferably other people's money), and taking action. You have to take action.
Now is the time. Re-Think, Re-Connect, Re-Tool.
Erik Cofield, CGA has leveraged technology and provided business management consulting for all sizes and types of builders, developers and Remodelers since 2000, including volume, multi-family and custom, to help them improve their business. He is the VP of Sales and Marketing with BuildTopia (www.buildtopia.com), a widely used international construction management software company. He is the Houston Sales and Marketing Council 2008 Associate of the Year. He is an author, educator, consultant and speaker. He can be reached via ecofield@buildtopia.com.
It goes without saying that the last 10 years have been a very transitional time in the world of marketing. The old rules of mass reach and frequency have not been washed away completely, but undeniably diluted by the ever-expanding choices available to both the consumer and the advertiser. Thanks to technology, the more interesting news is that the end of this "transitional" period is no where in sight. The flood gates of new mediums are wide open and they continue to pour in on us.
With ad budgets shrinking on a daily basis, it's more crucial than ever to make the right choices. One of my favorite quotes that I'm unfortunately unable to credit is 'More is not better. Better is better.'
The problem with a mass media, or 'more' approach to homebuilder marketing has not changed. You need super high exposure numbers to reach your buyer through mass media if you don't have a mainstream product. Coca-Cola can advertise on any number of TV shows and stations (and they do), but that's because every man, woman, and child on the planet is a likely purchaser of their product. This is not the case for two-bedroom multi-level condos from the low $200's on the east side of town.
There's a smaller buyer pool for our product. Homebuilders don't need more advertising now. They need better advertising now. This is good news. More advertising costs more, but better advertising may not. So how do you make your advertising better? Here are just a few thoughts:
- Spend your budget on people actively looking for a home first. Don't pull money out of your Google campaign to run generic radio spots. Your keyword targeted ads are only showing to those actively searching for a home. Your radio spot may, or may not, be hitting people who are in the market.
- Ask publishers for targeting or segmenting options. If you're currently running banners or video ads on a local media site, ask them for how you can better target your buyer profile. You may pay a higher rate per impression to only target a particular geographic region, behavior pattern, or income level, but you'll probably be able to reduce your total impressions to offset the cost and end up with better quality traffic.
- Interview your current buyers. Pick a sampling of your current buyers and offer them a free gas card if they'll sit with you for a 30 minute interview. Ask them questions to learn about their media consumption. What tools did they use in their search? What websites do they visit daily? What information do they expect to get from their cell phone? If it's a representative sample of your buyer profile, chances are you'll learn how to reach your next buyers.
- Measure. Test. Measure. Test. Measure. You get the point. One of the most beneficial aspects of technology based advertising is its measurability. Before spending any money on advertising, you must invest in a website analytics platform. With this information, you can determine not just where your traffic is coming from, but where your better traffic is coming from. This information allows you to make decisions about what's working and what's not. This is a key component to spending your ad budget on better advertising.
The byproduct of technology is more choices for you - most of them offer solid targeting options allowing you to drill down to location, age, income, and behavior of your ad recipients. Embracing new technology allows you to segment your marketing based on your target profile and focus your budget in the right place.
No need to wait until its time for budget cutting. Take a look at your media plan today. Analyze closely where your dollars go and look for ways to target each penny.
Dennis O'Neil heads up ONeil Interactive LLC, an online marketing and strategy company for the new home industry. You can learn more about Dennis O'Neil and ONeil Interactive by visiting www.oneilinteractive.com.
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